The downfall
King Solomon’s life plays out like a tragedy.
He starts off on the right foot. He kept God's commandments, loved God, and in exchange, Solomon received bountiful blessings (1 Kings 3:3–13).
But he had a fatal flaw.
Solomon loved many foreign women (1 Kings 11:1).
This might be puzzling. Why did the wisest man fall for such a degrading temptation? Shouldn’t he have known better?
But in reality, Solomon’s downfall started long before 1 Kings 11. It started from the moment he compromised on God’s command regarding marriage for the sake of perceived political peace. We see this in 1 Kings 3 when Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter so that he could enter into a political alliance with Pharaoh (1 Kings 3:1; cf. Deuteronomy 7:3–4).
This small compromise eventually snowballed into larger compromises that eventually led Solomon to idol worship (1 Kings 11:4-8).
We might say that “I’m not going to be like Solomon and commit such a grave blunder!”
Yet, if we look at Solomon’s downfall from a spiritual perspective, we may realise that we are not too unlike Solomon.
The bible often describes our relationship with God to be that of a groom and His bride; God is just like a jealous husband. He wants us to love Him the most and to love only Him. No spouse would want their partner to fall in love with a third party (2 Corinthians 11:2; Exodus 34:14)
Perhaps we have been unfaithful to God in our relationship with Him. For the sake of reassurance and stability, we start to spend more and more time on things of the world rather than God. Saying that we love God but in reality we spend our time and effort chasing after the many other alluring things in the world. A higher paying job, a bigger house, a more expensive look.
Solomon’s fatal flaw was that he compromised on God’s commands because he thought it might give him political benefits. Eventually, this compromise grew into his eventual choice to partake in idol worship.
For us, the bible makes clear that in our lives we have to choose a side (James 4:4). Will we choose to befriend the world or befriend the God who created the world?
The punishment
As a result of Solomon’s unfaithfulness to God’s commandment regarding marrying foreign wives, God punished Solomon harshly.
God raised up adversaries against Solomon: Hadad the Edomite, Rezon of Zobah, and Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:14, 23, 26).
Interestingly, from a logical standpoint, Solomon should have had a good relationship with each of these adversaries.
Hadad was a friend to Egypt, and Egypt was on friendly terms with Solomon. Technically, a friend of a friend, would be your friend. Yet Solomon was not on friendly terms with Hadad.
Rezon of Zobah was an enemy of the king of Zobah who was on bad terms with David and eventually defeated by David. Technically, the enemy of your enemy, would be your friend. Yet Solomon found an enemy in Rezon.
Lastly, Jeroboam was the son of Solomon’s servant. A servant is one who should be loyal to his master. Yet, not only did Jeroboam rebel against Solomon, but the cherry on top was that Jeroboam was sent by God to rebel against his king! (1 Kings 11:26, 28–31)
Solomon’s sin began with Solomon compromising on the commandment of God to gain political strength and stability through his own means of getting Egypt’s support. However God subverts expectations of political allegiances and uses this to punish Solomon.
We may think that from a human logic standpoint, compromising on this small faith matter is okay because the benefits we get from this compromise outweigh the cost. But through Solomon’s example, we are reminded that God has the power to turn human logic on its head. The very thing that we pursue can become what causes us much grief later on. We may pursue our dream job or marriage, expecting that it will pan out in a certain way. But perhaps this dream job or marriage becomes a cause of stress and sorrow further down the road because of bad bosses or conflicting values.
Let us reflect on our conduct and walk of faith, whether we have compromised in any of God’s commandments. If we have, let us quickly repent and turn away from our sins while God is still merciful (Isaiah 55:6–7; 1 John 1:9).
Reflection questions
Have we compromised in keeping any of God’s commandments?
Do we love God more than the world in our daily lives?
Do we rely on human logic when making our decisions instead of factoring God into our decision-making process?
